Remembering Orpha Elzetta Nicoll Greer

Orpha Elzetta Nicoll Greer

by her daughter Florence Leoma Greer Crosby

Orpha Elzetta Nicoll was born in American Fork, Utah, the seventh child of a family of twelve children (four boys and eight girls). She moved with her parents to Washington City near St. George, Utah, about 1870. The family lived here until December 1879 when they moved to St. Johns, Arizona, where her father built a fine two-story home.

On March 29, 1885, Mother was married to my father, John Harris Greer, in St. Johns, Arizona by David K. Udall. Mother gave birth to fourteen living children who were all married before her death in 1944. Tom was her only child who preceded her in death.

Mother was a good manager in her home. She was a good housekeeper and cook. She was kind and good and loved her children and taught us to do all the household tasks well. She did all of the sewing for her children and we were neatly clothed. She was hospitable and a good neighbor to all. She loved music. I remember well my sister and I receiving $1 for learning our music notes and our first little piece on the piano.

Mother developed high blood pressure in her later years and died as a result of a stroke while visiting her son James in Whittier, California. She was brought back to St. Johns, Arizona, and buried beside her husband.

Things I Remember About Grandmother

Orpha Elzetta Nicoll Greer

by Margaret Stradling Ballantyne

(daughter of Catherine Ellen Greer)

She was always worrying about Uncle Ray—her baby. It seems he would leave home as a teenager and not let her know where he was.

Watching her put cardboard in the bottom of her shoes when they had holes in them.

She kept mint candies in her dresser drawer—they were always available to me.

Walking from Church one Sunday night when I must have been fairly young, she showed me the Milky Way—a beautiful starlit night.

In her later years she lived in Mesa in the winter and did temple work. In the summer she lived at Uncle John Greer’s motel.

She was an excellent housekeeper and cook—very fastidious and careful about her person. She loved to have me brush her hair.

There were lilac bushes along the path to her front door and mint plants planted inside a discarded tire.

She would let me make cinnamon rolls from leftover bread dough.

She made and liked “clabber.” This was made by letting milk sit on the back of the wood stove. It soured and thickened and was probably much like our sour cream.

She loved music and would play her Enrico Caruso opera records on the phonograph.